


Coffeeshops

by PostcardsfromTheoryland



Series: December Fic Prompts [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Christmas Fluff, Gen, Hunk is bound and determined to spread Christmas cheer by any means necessary, Keith (Voltron) Needs a Hug, hints of asexual!Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27932641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PostcardsfromTheoryland/pseuds/PostcardsfromTheoryland
Summary: There’s a stranger sitting alone in Hunk’s coffeeshop. On Christmas Day.
Relationships: Hunk & Keith (Voltron)
Series: December Fic Prompts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037385
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52





	Coffeeshops

**Author's Note:**

> It's apparently Hunk + Keith weekend here in Theoryland

There’s a stranger sitting alone in Hunk’s coffeeshop.

That in and of itself is hardly a surprise. Plenty of people come to his shop alone – just to grab a quick latte and go or to sit with a book for hours. Hunk likes that he’s cultivated a cozy place for everyone to spend a few hours with some good coffee and food. Nor is it a surprise to see a new customer. The shops has plenty of regulars, but every regular started out as a new customer. If it were any other day, Hunk would be pleased to see a new face spending hours at the little corner table with a book.

But it’s not any other day.

It’s Christmas.

Hunk has always kept the shop open on Christmas Day, at least until early afternoon. It’s partially because there’s always an increase of customers with fewer options, but also because the industrial kitchen is a lot easier to cook in than the one in his tiny apartment. So there’s been a steady stream of customers all day: frazzled mothers ordering 8 coffees to go for the whole family, cute couples getting lattes and a piece of cake to share, gaggles of small children asking for hot chocolate.

And the one, lone stranger with his book, who’s been there since 9am. It’s now 2:30pm. Half an hour till closing.

There’s an idea forming in Hunk’s brain as he puts the finishing touches on the green bean casserole and shoves it into the oven to bake. It’s probably silly – who’s to say this stranger even celebrates Christmas? Or maybe he does have plans, just later in the day?

But there’s just something about him, something that screams “I’m lonely and alone and spending Christmas in a coffeeshop so I forget about how lonely and alone I am.” So before Hunk can talk him out of it, he’s bringing around the customary “we’re about to close and no way am I serving day-old-baked goods so please take some of these for free” tray, and starting with that little corner table.

“Hey there, we’re going to close soon,” he starts, but the stranger jolts up at the sound of his voice.

“Oh, uh, sorry, I can…” he says, barely even looking at Hunk as he starts to pack up his belongings.

“No, hey it’s fine, it’s no rush.” Hunk revises his thoughts about this customer: lonely, alone, and very anxious. “I was just going to ask if you wanted anything off the tray. On the house – I can’t sell them tomorrow anyways.” If there’s a large enough batch left over at the end of the day, Hunk usually takes it to the one of the nearby shelters or foodbanks, but there are only a few items left after the late morning rush.

“Oh. Thanks,” the stranger actually looks up at that, a tiny smile on his face as he picks out the cherry turnover. Good choice. Hunk doesn’t want to freak the guy out anymore than he has, but this seems like now or never. He’ll try to make it casual.

“So, uh, no pressure, but do you have any plans for tonight?”

The customer freezes, turnover held awkwardly in front of him, before his eyes shift downward and he coughs a little. “I’m flattered but um, I’m not really…interested in…that.”

“Oh,” Hunk says, before the sentence really catches up with him. Nice job Hunk, accidentally come on to the new customer, that’s great. “OH no, no, no, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. This isn’t me trying to, I have a girlfriend, I swear. I just uh, it seemed like you possibly didn’t have Christmas plans and I thought you maybe needed a friend? Sorry, you can tell me to get lost and leave you alone if you want. I just figured you were maybe new around here and didn’t have any Christmas plans, and I do have Christmas plans.” Hunk is babbling, he knows he is, but then the stranger just kind of scoffs in a self-deprecating way that already has Hunk’s This-Guy-Needs-A-Hug Radar going off.

“Yeah, new around here, as of about three years ago,” he says. “Never been really good at making friends.”

“Well, now you’ve made one. I’m Hunk.” He sticks a hand out to shake across the table, hoping he hasn’t come off as any more bizarre and overly-social than the stranger must already think he is. There’s a brief hesitation, and a surprised look flashes across his customer’s face.

“Keith,” he says eventually and reaches up to shake his hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, Keith,” Hunk smiles. “But seriously. No pressure, I’m not going to kidnap you or follow you home or anything, but if you don’t have any plans, I’m offering. It’s a small, low-key thing: me and my girlfriend and three of our friends. They’re all really nice – Pidge and Matt have a tendency to go off on tangents about super in-depth computer programming things, and Shiro never shuts up about space, but it seems like maybe you might have that in common,” Hunk gestures at the book sitting on the table: Bradbury’s _The Martian Chronicles_. 

Hunk finds himself almost glad that Lance had gone back to Cuba to spend the holiday with his family this year. As much as he’ll miss his friend’s usually shenanigans, he gets the feeling introducing Keith to someone as extroverted and loud as Lance might not go over too well when he’s clearly already tense.

As it is, Keith is still just kind of staring off into the middle-distance.

“I’ll, let you think about it,” Hunk says. “I’m here until close. I mean, obviously I am, I’m the only person working right now. But anyways, let me know.”

Hunk goes about the rest of his pre-close routine. The other three customers left, a couple with a young child, take the last of the bakery items and then he bustles about, mopping the floor and wiping down the tables before heading back into the kitchen to check on the food for the evening. They’ve worked out a system the past few years, so that Hunk can pack up all the dishes with heating pads right after closing and get to Shiro’s place right for the start of dinner and still have everything be perfectly warm.

When he walks back into the café to close out the register, he fully expects the room to be empty. But to his surprise, Keith is still there, hovering awkwardly near the door like he was going to leave but then changed his mind halfway through.

“You…really don’t mind?” he asks. “Or would your friends?”

“No, like I said they’re all really nice. We’ll have dinner, desserts, probably play a boardgame or two. It’s chill.”

It takes about thirty seconds before Keith finally says, in nearly a whisper, “Okay. I’ll come then, if it’s really ok. Thank you.”

This is not the response Hunk was expecting, and he has to restrain himself from rushing up and immediately grabbing Keith in a hug. “Oh, this is great! It’s going to be a good time, I promise!”

Keith looks less convinced than Hunk feels, but at least he hasn’t bolted yet. “It honestly doesn’t have a lot of competition, considering last year the most festive thing I did was put up a single string of lights.”

Ok. Challenge accepted. Hunk is going to make this the best Christmas Keith has ever had.


End file.
